Which board: MSI BX Master, CUBX, P3V4X, or BE6-II?

[Bling Bling]

Ok, here's the deal...I'm starting a little "business" type thing where i build computers for people. Most of my "customers" (family/friends/neighbors) are either going to need it for college or for general home/office use. So i'm thinking of a nice stable (may o/c-able) system for each need.

I'll more than likely be using PIII 550e/600e/700e processors. I've good stuff about Soyo boards, but i don't know jack about them.

Also the whole deal with VIA, BX, and i815 based boards has left me indecisive. So i need your help.

Which boards should i deal with? I'm looking for good quality for a low price. Overclockability is good (more band for the buck in terms of the processor) but not mandatory. Stability is key.


Also, I know how we all despise onboard sound/video, but those might be necessary for the extreme money-conscious buyer. Any suggestions for those (what do HP, Compaq, Dell, etc. use?) would be appreciated as well.

Thanks

 

[rastaman]

Go for the MSI BXMaster. I have one, and I absolutely LOVE it. Very stable and an overclocker's dream!

 

[steelthorn]

The Bx chipset is the most stable and fastest board out there.
The second would be the new 815e chipset and the third would
be the p3v4x. If money is a concern I would go with the 815e because it has onboard sound and video, though it's not worth a crap.
Personally I have the p3v4x and I love it.

 

[dc9mm2]

Ok i say go with the Asus P3V4X and heres why. The BX boards will run faster at equivalent CPU speeds than the P3V4X but if you want to get into over clocking you have less of a chance with problems because it has a 1/2 divider for the AGP bus. Now I know there are lots of BX guys out there who are overclocking the hell out of there CPU with no problems but there are alot with Video problems also, then you have to find out which video cards can handle the high AGP bus and which wont,, because of the high AGP speed. Less trouble with the Via setup but not as fast. The I815 i here is harder to find and cost more but it does come with video built in but you wouldnt want to use it any way.

So for cost reasons no I815
For stability problems with high AGP bus when overclocking no BX (yes alot have no problem)
Asus P3V4X quality board less likly to have problems when overclocking and relativly low cost.

Now if iam wrong I will fall on my sword!

I have a Asus P3V4X 550e running at 803 with PC 100 ram at 146!

 

[BeHeMOTH]

well I had a Aopen ax63pro with Via 133, and the MSI BXMaster with it's 133bx. The winner is!!! MSI BXMaster I love this board. It's really up to you, but I'd stick with the bx chipset.

 

[Ulysses]

The real question to be asked is why would someone buy from you when they can go to Dell or Gateway or a local store and get reliability and service at a reasonable price. Your machines are probably going to cost more than those others if you expect to make even a small profit to cover the cost of your time, because you can't buy components in volume or have them made to your specs (and I'm not even going to talk about the cost of software). Maybe you should sell your PC's on a cost plus basis, kind of like for a fixed fee - you'ld really be selling only your expertise and system assembly services - go upscale and become a consultant!

The answer to my question has to be that your PC's must be more upgradeable, overclockable and have a longer useful life than the big boys (which ties into upgradability, particularly of the CPU). Of course your PC's will have to be stable, but that's not a selling point, really, since no one's going to buy an unstable PC if they know it, and the OEM's almost insure stability in their's by not enabling overclocking, and using standardized proven components they get in volume. In this regard, the idea of selling overclocked (or overclockable) machines may be an invitation to problems. Every time someone of your customers screws up their machine their going to be on you like newbies on these forums. Yeeesh.

Anyway:

The Slot 1 format of the boards you listed is starting to seem very dated, notwithstanding the stability issue. If you're going to specialize in Intel, you ought to stick to FC-PGA CPU's and Socket 370 boards which are more up to date for forward compatibility and upgradeability. The Intel 815E platform looks very nice and has many forward looking features, although new 815 boards are just coming on the market and may be expensive. I'd also avoid Abit, since they are not always so stable (Abit doesn't make any boards for OEM's, I believe). I'd probably avoid VIA based mobos too for Intel systems, to be conservative. In an ideal world you might build PC's around the new ASUS CUSL2, an AnandTech Editor's Choice mobo, but they'll be costly and are just coming out (ASUS does make boards for OEM's). You'll also need a source of RAM. Here all you'll need is plain PC133 SDRAM - forget that CAS 2-2-2 stuff.

My own thinking, and I'm an Intel fan for my own personal systems, is that you should specialize in AMD Duron and new Athlon Thunderbird systems. They cost less and outperform the P3 Coppermine systems unless those are extremely overclocked. You could wave some impressive benchmark results in your potential customers' faces. I think you'll have to do something like that to avoid pricing yourself out of the market or going broke. Working for peanuts will get old real quick. OTOH, I had a friend a few years ago who ran a bike shop for fun, barely breaking even, but living off his wife's salary. He loved it.

 

[Bling Bling]

What's the deal with the "1/2 AGP bus divider?" How serious a problem can it be? :Q

Also, which cards can handle the high AGP bus? :Q

Steelthorn said that if money is a concern, get the 815, but dc9mm2
says the opposite. hmm......... What is a good 815 based board?

One more thing...are 815e and i815 the same thing?

Thanks for the help and suggestions (i'm new to all this), and keep those replies coming!!!

 

[toadstool]

I have the P3V4x, and it's very stable when I don't overclock it.
I have a 700e, and if I run it near it's normal speed, I don't have any problems with the board at all.

However, it has real problems when I try to overclock it. I've tried up to 882 mghz, and still have problems.
Whereas , my other board which I replaced, was an ABIT BH6, which was a BX board. I could overclock this chip to 933 mghz and not have any problems. It was much better when it came to overclocking.
Maybe you should consider more than one board. The PV34x would be a great cheaper board for someone who isn;t going to try to overclcok much or wants to mess around with settings. It does run stable.
But, if someone wants to overclock, I think BX boards are better.

 

[tinhrdep]

from all the reviews and opinions i have read, i think i will buy the asus board for the cel 566 from buy.com (if it ever comes )
can someone recommend a place to buy this board for cheap?

 

[dc9mm2]

Ok let me explain the 1/2 AGP divider thing. The normal bus speed of the AGP bus is 66 meg/hrtz, the speed is determined by dividing the system bus speed by a divider. On all BX mobo's the highest divider is 2/3 because it was made for a 100 meg/hertz system bus, example 100 divided by 2/3 is 66meg/hrtz which gives you a normal AGP bus speed. But the VIA chipset was also made for the 133 systen bus speed so it has a 1/2 divider along with 2/3 and 1 to 1 for Celeron systems. So as an example say you have a 550e Pentium111 chip and you want to overclock it to 733. You would raise the FSB(front side bus,, system bus) to 133 and then use the 1/2 divider which again would give you 66 AGP bus speed. Now do the exact same thing with a BX mobo and your bus speed would be 88.6 AGP bus speed, well out of spec's. Check this thread in the forum about people with higher than normal AGP bus speed's,, http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=187125
Plus if you really want to overclock say a 550e like i do and get 803 out of it.. I run a 146 system bus speed but my AGP is still only at 73 meg/hrtz. Almost all video cards can handle that. But when you get to 89 they start to not work. Check the thread i gave you. but alot can handle it but its more likley with a VIA mobo to have less video problems. BUT NOT all people have a problem i just said LESS likley.

I think Ulyess has good advice to but I815 mobo's cost more right now and from what i have been reading about what Intel is doing they are NOT going to supply alot of those (I815)chip sets because they want to push the I820 with RAMBUS ram. I build systems for freinds and your not going to be able to make alot of money doing it, thats for sure.

 

[T2T III]

tinhrdep,


<< can someone recommend a place to buy this board for cheap? >>


Don't forget to check the For Sale section of this forum. I've seen some recent Asus P3V4X boards for sale.

 

[Jhhnn]

My wife is the office manager for a small high profile litigation law firm. They contracted maintenance with a small computer firm (actually a married couple) some years ago, and have stuck with them ever since, upgrading their entire system several times. Anyway, to make a long story short, we have become friends, and their point of view is that &quot;You can't make any money on hardware.&quot; Sure, they build the systems they sell (he refers to this as self-defense) and consider any profit as a bonus. They just have to keep the price of the hardware down to get the maintenance contracts,which is the source of their income. They also provide maintenance on factory systems, at a higher price. Funky hardware and custom configurations are their biggest headache. Their machines? Enlight enclosures, Intel (mobos, nics, processors),AC'97 onboard sound or Creative labs soundcards, if any, 4-8 meg vidcards, WD or IBM Harddrives, NT orWin98, Netware, Netscape(slower virii propagation), firewalls--Really staid stuff, apparently one of a few ways to actually make a living at it, unless you plan to be like FalconNorthwest.